Boards
I’ve been CEO of two startups and on the board of about ten. That means I’ve presented a lot of operating plans to boards. It also means I've had a lot of operating plans presented to me. Frankly, most of the time, I don’t love
CEO
Working in my capacity at as an EIR at Balderton Capital, I have recently written a new publication, The Balderton Founder's Guide to B2B Sales, with the able support of Balderton Principal Michael Lavner and the entire Balderton Capital team. This guide is effectively a new edition, and
Metrics
Just a quick post to share the slides of a presentation on leading, lagging, and predictive indicators that I gave at the recent Foundry CFO Summit. * It starts with a discussion of the importance of leading indicators, particularly as we head into an uncertain business environment. * It discusses go-to-
Management
Just a quick post to share the slides I used at a recent SaaStock member workshop on Rising to the Challenges of US Expansion. Thanks to those who attended -- everyone had great questions and feedback. My favorite was roughly: "listen to Dave, I literally have made every one of
Management
"I'm an CMO and it's 2018. Of course I've read Play Bigger. Duh. Do you think I live under a rock?" -- Anonymous repeat CMO Play Bigger hit the Sand Hill Road scene in a big way after its publication in 2016. Like
SaaS
Just a quick post to highlight that SaaStr has posted the official video of my SaaStr Europa 2022 presentation entitled, The Top 5 Scale-Up Mistakes, that I gave in Barcelona in June. They also published a blog on the session and packaged it into a podcast episode. The video
Management
I had a chat with a CMO a while back. DK: How's the relationship with your CRO going? CMO: Solid. We collaborate really well. DK: I've heard you've had some trouble hitting sales targets. CMO: Yes, well you know the targets are pretty aggressive
Marketing
Who are we? What does our brand stand for? What promise does our brand make? These are some of the questions that quickly come up when thinking about branding. In general, I think branding is a potential marketing rathole for startups, particularly early-stage ones. See my post entitled, If
Startups
This is a cross-post to Kellblog of the first post in a six-part series that I wrote for Balderton Capital as part of my work there. The first two posts are already up on Balderton's website, while the remaining four will be rolling out at the
Marketing
Just a quick post to publish the slides from the talk I gave today at SaaStr Europa in Barcelona on the top 5 mistakes in scale-up. Thanks so much to everyone who attended, stuck around for the AMA session afterwards, and gave me feedback or asked me questions at
CEO
I talked to a founder a while back who felt like they'd lost a year or two thanks to some strategic distractions foisted upon them by a well-meaning board of directors. While most startup boards try to follow the Hippocratic Oath, some -- like well-meaning but overbearing
Management
In the land of disruption, there's always something dying and something lining up to replace it, so we're pretty used to hearing things like "on-premise is dead, long live SaaS." Sometimes, they're right. Despite the 2008-era views of our resident